2,500 protests / ‘A terrifying way to live’ / A Chicago original? / Quiz!

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2,500 protests. That’s the number of demonstrations organizers expect across the country for tomorrow’s “No Kings” show of opposition to Donald Trump’s fascist government …
■ … which organizers say could be the largest one-day coordinated protest in U.S. history.
■ Alexander Vindman—the retired lieutenant colonel who triggered Trump’s first impeachment: “Show up and protest if you believe that America has no kings, that we all are equal under the law, and that Trump’s attacks on our citizens, his abuse of immigrants, his failed healthcare and economic policies and his corruption are unacceptable and must stop.”

‘Take videos or photos with your phone locked.’ No Kings organizers offer that and other tips for demonstrating safely.
■ The Resistance Manual: “Write down the number of a lawyer and a trusted person NOT attending the protest who can contact legal help if you’re detained. Write it on your arm or a part of your body you can easily see. Do it in Sharpie.”
■ Find a rally near you.

‘The Trump administration is losing a lot more than you think.’ Journalist Aaron Parnas and Democracy Forward president Skye Perryman say the president’s batting average in courts across the nation is nothing to brag about.
■ That includes a federal appellate court ruling yesterday rejecting the administration’s effort to deploy troops in Chicago as litigation proceeds: “Political opposition is not rebellion.”

Smile. Chicago federal Judge Sara Ellis is ordering federal immigration agents to wear body cameras …
■ … and requiring an ICE official to testify about tear-gassing in Chicago.
■ Another judge has ordered that a Border Patrol agent who shot a woman after their vehicles collided in Brighton Park Oct. 4 to return that car to Chicago.

‘A terrifying way to live.’ Columnist Julie Vassilatos shares a taste of life on Chicago’s South Side: “People are being snatched off the street one block over from my house.”
■ Gov. Pritzker gathered a former military officials to condemn the politicization of armed forces in Chicago and elsewhere.
■ Mother Jones: “To understand that horrific Chicago apartment raid, go back in time—to Texas.”
■ ProPublica: “More than 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents … kicked, dragged and detained for days.”

And in the suburbs …
■ ICE has arrested a Hanover Park police officer, accusing him of overstaying a tourist visa that expired a decade ago.
■ For at least the third time this month, immigration agents have arrested a person in Evanston.
■ To protect a largely Latino landscaping workforce, Oak Park’s changing enforcement of its ban on gas-powered leafblowers—issuing tickets just to property owners, not the workers themselves.

Presidential bullshit. An investigation by the AFP news agency finds a White House video asserting that Chicago’s in “chaos” is filled with old footage from other states.
■ Jimmy Kimmel’s still collecting viewers’ real #ShowMeYourHellhole videos.

Revenge prosecution. Updating coverage: Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic, John Bolton, arrived in court today—the third Trump adversary to face federal criminal charges amid concerns that the president’s weaponizing the Justice Department.
■ Unlike others, law professor Joyce Vance says, this “does appear to be a strong case.”

Who’s really running the federal government? Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich sketches it out.
■ Cartoonist/columnist Jack Ohman: Salesforce co-founder and Time magazine owner Marc Benioff used to be a major Democratic player, but “now he’s MAGA.”
■ The “Godfather of Silicon Valley” has quit Benioff’s philanthropic organization in protest.

‘Democrats are saying it’s illegal because it is illegal.’ Historian Heather Cox Richardson analyzes the Trump administration’s decision to pay furloughed troops through the federal shutdown with funds Congress appropriated for research and development …
■ … a thing that The American Prospect says highlights “another part of the Constitution that Trump is fully flushing down the toilet.”
■ Federal workers have now missed their first paycheck of the shutdown.
■ Illinois’ Human Services Department: 1.9 million Illinoisans will lose food assistance Nov. 1 if this goes on.

A Chicago original? Mayor Johnson’s proposing what could be the nation’s first tax on social media companies.
■ Also: A revival of the city’s “head tax” on companies with more than 100 employees working more than half the time in Chicago.
■ Gov. Pritzker says he plans to donate his $1.4 million in Vegas winnings to charity.

Dingus of the Week. Author Lyz Lenz’s pick is Young Republicans’ group chat—“in which they joked about slavery and professed their love for Adolf Hitler.”
■ Responding to Vice President Vance’s defense of those guys—some of whom are as old as 40—as “kids” doing “stupid things,” Stephen Colbert jokingly recalled, “It’s true. When I was in Cub Scouts, about 10 years old, me and my troop invaded Poland.”
■ The New York Times (gift link): New York’s Republican leaders were poised today to disband at least that state’s chapter.
■ The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson (no relation) tracks the racist roots of today’s Republican Party.
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin: “You can’t cover Washington accurately and not mention white supremacy.”

‘Typhoons, shutdowns, problem children and Bad Bunny.’ You’ll find ’em all in this week’s Conversation news quiz from past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
■ Surely you can top your Square columnist’s sad 5/8 score.

‘Censored.’ Indiana University students have released a digital edition of their newspaper after the school fired their faculty director.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “Indiana University has really stepped in it.”

‘ChatGPT does not understand the concept of Halloween, or pranking in general, at ALL.’ But Pulitzer-winning columnist Dave Barry gave it a shot.
■ Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up three days after Halloween to offer you interactive online coaching in the world of AI tools. Sign up free here.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

The case for No Kings / Stuff it, Pentagon / Satan’s ‘secret abortion’

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The case for No Kings. Columnist Dan Froomkin spells out what’s at stake in Saturday’s rallies against President Trump’s Republican regime.
■ Among what Popular Information calls “unhinged attacks on No Kings,” House Speaker Mike Johnson calls protesters—including many of you—“terrorists.”
■ Democracy Docket: “MAGA is afraid. They are rushing to recast … peaceful protest as anti-American and tantamount to terrorism.”
■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein: Major media are ignoring “the FBI and the Homeland Security Department … actively investigating ‘Antifa’ individuals and organizations that the Trump administration has branded domestic terrorists.”
■ The Wall Street Journal (gift link): Trump’s team is planning an Internal Revenue Service overhaul to enable pursuit of left-leaning groups.
■ Politico: “Trump is only accelerating as we head toward the end of his first year” of his second term.

Why march? Columnist Thom Hartmann: “In Chicago … America caught a glimpse of its possible future, and it was terrifying.”
■ After federal agents went wild on the Southeast Side Tuesday, community organizers—including the school board’s vice president—declared: “Leave our city. You are not welcome here.”
■ The Tribune (gift link) tracks a fresh round of immigration raids in the suburbs.
■ The TRiiBE followed action in the courts.
■ In what columnist Christopher Hale sees as evidence of an “anti-Catholic crusade,” ICE targeted a Chicago mass.
■ In a victory for demonstrators and the embattled suburb of Broadview, a temporary fence around the federal detention center there has been removed at a judge’s order.
■ With ICE-wary tenants skipping work and unable to pay rent and maintenance staff harder to find, landlords fear they’ll have to raise rent for others.
■ Portland-based CityNerd Ray Delahanty shares a video tour of our town: “Shockingly, they’ve been lying to me about Chicago.”
■ Correcting yesterday’s Chicago Public Square, ICE detained a WGN-TV producer in Lincoln Square, not Lincoln Park.

A general strike? Columnist Christopher Armitage says history shows that to be “the most powerful tool available to working people.”
■ The anonymously authored Closer to the Edge asks: What if, after these big protests, people didn’t just go home?
Stuff it, Pentagon. Dozens of Defense Department reporters turned in their access badges yesterday, refusing to play by new Republican restrictions on their work …
■ … but not The Daily Show: “Everyone else rejected it so hard that it honestly made us feel kinda bad for Pete Hegseth.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “It sucks that real reporters won’t be allowed in the Pentagon anymore, but with that little tyrant loser fluffing himself and calling himself the secretary of WARRRR, they’re making the gamble that if they work hard enough, the story will keep coming to them.”

Is he feeling lucky? Gov. Pritzker’s newly released tax records for 2024 show $1.4 million in gambling winnings. (Tribune gift link, courtesy of readers like you, supporting Chicago Public Square.)

NBC News cuts. As the Peacock Network splits from MSNBC and CNBC, it’s laying off 150 workers—many devoted to covering diversity issues …
■ … although some can reapply.
■ The Wall Street Journal’s axed a dozen employees with its health and science team.
■ Indiana University fired its student newspaper adviser after he refused to tell the staff to remove, you know … news … from the upcoming homecoming issue …
■ An alumnus of the paper writes for Poynter: “This situation makes me ashamed to be a graduate of the IU Media School. But I’ll never be ashamed to be a graduate of the Indiana Daily Student.”
■ Here’s a link inadvertently left out of yesterday’s Square: The Writers Guild of America and CBS have told CBS News employees they can blow off Bari Weiss’ demand that they tell her how they spend their workdays.

‘The opinion starts off with a bang.’ Law professor Joyce Vance dives into a federal judge’s ruling keeping Trump from firing workers during the federal shutdown.
■ The New York Times (gift link): “U.S. enters 15th day of late-night jokes about government shutdown.”

Kids without COVID shots. Trump administration delays have kept children from low-income Chicago households from getting their vaccinations.
■ A new report finds pedestrian traffic downtown has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
■ Oak Park’s West Suburban Medical Center and its now-closed sibling Weiss Memorial Hospital are in the hole for more than $69 million owed the state of Illinois.

Walmart shooting. Two people were hurt when gunfire broke out at an Evergreen Park store yesterday afternoon.
■ At least one guy was in custody.

Satan’s ‘secret abortion.’ Last night’s South Park took Trump to Planned Parenthood in an attempt to end the life of his unborn child with the devil.
■ Abortion, Every Day: A Senate bill would end Affordable Care Act abortion coverage—even in pro-choice states.

‘When will Time magazine issue a full retraction and republish its cover story with a photo of a muscular President Trump carrying a machine gun atop a soaring eagle?’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: Time’s cover shot is “a national scandal.”

‘God, there is so much … news these days.’ That’s a fellow newsletter author commiserating with your Chicago Public Square columnist.
■ And it’s true: Square can’t give it all to you each weekday at 10, so you should check Square on Bluesky through the day.

A Square public service announcement
courtesy of a Square supporter

Rush in review. Former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush will reflect on his long career as an activist, politician and pastor Sunday morning at 11:30. See it in person at Chicago’s Third Unitarian Church, just off the Green Line in the Austin neighborhood. For more information, visit thirdunitarianchurch.org. To request Zoom access, visit thirdunitarianchurch.org/contact.

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